“Ariya was tall and fine-boned, with large doe-eyes framed by long lashes. She moved about the one-story house with a self-possessed grace in her purple dress. We thought she would make a good model. She could sell anything but perfume, because she always had a smell: parsley, cilantro, chicken, goat, sour sop, shop cheese.”

“She had to find her own story, and she could make it whatever shape she thought best.”

“Scent:When she wore the hat, even many years later, she could always smell her mother's perfume & it was hard to remember she was supposed to be alone.”

“She would follow him, and if he made a move to hurt her, she promised herself he would long regret it. At least she would try to make him long regret it. Of course, the worst thing she could probably manage would be to bleed on him. Fine revenge, that. (Serenity)”

“She always had to have someone to love...She couldn't seem to believe that anyone could really love her. She always thought it was because she was a star, not just because of her herself, and she always had to be reassured.”

“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”